MEDICAL INSPECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1916, Page 2

MEDICAL INSPECTION.

■OF SEW ZEALAND'S MANHOOD. JNTERESTIXG RESULTS. (Prom Our Own Correspondent). Wellington. December 15. Two experienced doctors, each oi them holding the niilitury rank of lieutenantcolonel, constitute u Medical Bunrd .inder the Military Service Act. Four of these boards are at worU in New Zealand at tlte present time, their task being the examination of the men who'are summoned for service with the Expeditionary Forces as compulsory recruits, either through the operation o! ■dnnsc 35 or in consequence oT their names having been drawn in the ballot. The prime duty of the Bonrd-s is to discover the men who are fit for service, but there is no doubt that this compulsory examination df a large section 'of the manhood of th" country is going to have important efi'ects quite apart from the purely military aspect of the proceedings. The reservists who are called up for examination undress in an outer room, where a record is taken of their names. Then one by one they go before the doctors, who do not know them by name at all, and are examines critically and impartially as to their physical condition and their fitness to endure the strain of training in camp and service in the field. The majority of them have had no similar experience before. They learn for the first time in their lives what an unbiased expert blinks of their physique and their constitutions. For some of them it is a revelation of weaknesses of which they knew nothing; for others, the examination means the dissipation of idle fears born, of ignorance. Humiliation awaits the few, who learn the price that Nature exacts for folly. Very many, happily for the nation, are given the hall-mark, "Fit." "A suit ot clothes may cover a multitude of sins," said a medical officer in discussing the work of the hoards. "I regard this compulsory examination of our men as one of the national benefits we are deriving from the war. The recruits are learning the truth about themselves, and that is all*to the good. Some of them are realising for the f.rst time that they have neglected tlicir bodies, and that bad living and lack of cxereiso in the days of peace have reduced them to the class of the weaklings, Some of those men—many of them, - hope—have left the examination room determined to remedy matters if they can. Other men, who thought themselves sound, have discovered that they have a serious weakness of some kind, probably amenable to treatment of i. proper kind. There are 'ots of surprises in the examination room. I hope that when their work is done these boards will be asked to prepare a genoral report upon the health and the physical condition of New Zealand's men of military age, with due regard to the fact that over 70,000 fit men have already been taken into the forces in this country." It would be absurd to suggest, of course, that every reservist who is rejected as unfit is a weakling. As a matter of fact, the doctors have sometimes to reject men who from the non-military standpoint are first-class specimens of the British breed. There might be quoted the case of &, young man, big, bronzed and sturdy, a,footballer and a rifle shot, who is ineligible for military service on account of .an old injury to a joint, sustained on the football field. The doctors are sure that he would break down under w prolonged strain, and that it would be useless to send him into camp. Hut men are no longer rejected for the minoi defects that wore held to be disqualifications in the earlier stages of the war, and it may be said generally that the work of the boards is tending to sort out the men who are liabilities, instead of assets o: the nation on the physical side. A STARTLING FEATUREThe work of the Medica. Board or the Wellington military district, during a three days' sitting in the city, has revealed a /ather startling feature. About 190 reservists, chosen for service in the first ballot, had been directed to present themselves for examination, and the results may be summarised as follows: —Men examined, 127: passed as fit, 01; unfit, CO; temporarily unfit, 13; failed to report, 03. It will be noticed that the reservists who failed to appear actually exceeded in number the men wko were passed as fit for service. This proportion of reservists who failed t6 report themselves for examination is unexpectedly large. Further notices will be sent to the addresses given by these men at the time of trieir registration, and if there is still no response steps will be taken to trace the missing recruits. There is reason to believe that in some eases the men may have failed to receive their notices, owing to changes of addresses. Reservists who have disregarded the summons deliberately have become liable to 'heavy penalties.